Lady Nile
by quiet.recluse
Summary: At equal stride they tied an invisible ribbon around their wrists. A tie created out of want, not necessity, and far less grave, far more innocent than any blood ritual. Both knew what they were getting into. And between them there were no regrets.


**This oneshot is inspired by the song 'Snake Dance,' by Jay Chou. It's originally a Chinese song, but I've used the translated lyrics in here. No one would have any idea how much of a pain this was to write. What was meant to be a short drabble became a long oneshot. Jeez.**

**My other fics I'm still working on, so no worries.**

**Since I was sleepy when I was editing this, and I have no beta-reader, please forgive any spelling mistakes in this. The grammar in this is terrible, and I know it, but my editing skills have been hopeless for the past month. XP**

**Disclaimer: I do not own Yu-Gi-Oh, nor do I own Snake Dance.**

_

* * *

The River Nile gently  
Overflows across the Cyprus papyrus  
It wanders through like a silk gown without feelings  
And after you put it on, you turn around to dance for me  
You do a dance of exclamation for the lonely earth  
_

She had never been born-only just existed. A being with the essence of the Shadows, the ever teetering balance between darkness and light. Her birth mother had been the Nile, the essence of Life-and what did that make her?

A wild, dangerous, yet mysteriously alluring woman. Why else would the Pharaoh Aknumkanon, fierce treasurer of his son-only remnant he had of his wife and heir to the Egyptian throne-let this alarming figure near his dear son Atemu?

She had no remarkable physical features-with the tan skin and black hair of a normal Egyptian woman, she seemed ordinary. Except for her eyes-bright green, feline, they reminded the Pharaoh of a prowling lioness, ever-alert and calculating.

Add that to the occurrence that she had risen out of the Nile like a ghostly apparition, and wore the rippling Nile waters as her dress and cape, he had deduced one thing-she was an immortal, from a realm much nobler than the mortal one he dwelled on. So the ruler bowed to his divine superior, a being who was a child of the Shadows itself, and yet also a child of eternal life, from the life-giving river, and addressed the being as "Lady Nile."

And to his bewilderment, she had come no closer, instead basking in the light of the gloriously eerie, red washed sunset, before moving. She stepped forward, onto the dark-soiled banks of the Nile, and twirled her hips; spread her arms, water and Shadows wrapping themselves around her like fluttering scarves-she danced.

_The sunset burns  
The corner of the cloud above the pyramid  
The shadow under the Sphinx  
It's an omen  
Balm is burning on the stone stairway_

Heat beat down onto her from the lowering sun, making sweat break out and trickle down her back and neck. Twisting, leaping, nimble feet stepping ceaselessly on the burning ground, Lady Nile danced. Even as shadows lengthened, and the figure of pyramids in the horizon turned to hulking black splotches, still she danced, amongst her circling vines of Shadows and water. Her figure, even her very shadow poured off magic in waves, stifling the air with its thickness, and it was then the Pharaoh realised he was witnessing something meant to be kept behind closed doors-for him alone, him and his son to see.

The vines bit into her wrist, creating welts. Blood dripped down her hands, onto the ground, which drank up the thick red fluid eagerly like a thirsting man. The crimson liquid dripped down her water and shadow vines, and they sucked it up too, taking a red hue in the process, matching the bloody red wash of the sky. And still she moved, still creating the sacred enchantment of the dancing blood ritual. The Pharaoh could only stare with horror, his feet strangely glued to the ground.

The Lady Nile lashed out her hands-towards his son. And the vines shot in his direction, like predator pouncing on prey. He tried to rear, but was caught by her eyes, which commanded him to be still.

The mixture of Shadows and Nile water did not swallow his son like he had thought they would. Instead the vines curled gently over his son's forearms, caressing as lingeringly as a loving mother to her precious child. They withdrew towards Lady Nile, and vanished. In the wake of its touch, the tattoo of a crimson snake was left on each of his son's forearms.

In place of slashed and gouged wrists, Lady Nile had the same snake markings. Clothes and skin smeared with blood, hair wild from dancing, she finally came to a stop, feet red and raw. She looked every part dishevelled.

Yet her bloodstained figure cut a dangerous edge against the backdrop of a sunset as equally dark and sinful as the blood ritual she had just carried out-without a wince.

"What have you done to my son?" Pharaoh Aknumkanon questioned hoarsely. She gave a feral, satisfied smile.

"I have bound him to me, just as I am now bound to him. Where he goes, my presence will be, to subtly guide the boy on his fate. His future is cursed-I will see him to his happier ending. Only then, will the blood ritual which ties us be undone. And then your son may live his own fate, and I can become one with the Nile again."

_In my kingdom  
The uproar of several centuries has been accumulated  
_

"What is in store for my son?" Pharaoh Aknumkanon asked this wild being carefully. "What darkness can you see? Can you tell me?"

"Mortals do not think their questions through properly," the Lady whispered, and yet the words carried clearly to the king. "Do you really wish to know the answer? Do you wish to know how the burden of your sin will swallow your son in darkness, years from now? Do you wish me to crush whatever feeble hope is left in your heart, that part that hopes for the best?"

Pharaoh Aknumkanon stared at the Lady, horrified. No…he had tried so hard to cover up the traces of that terrible sin he had unknowingly done…it would swallow Atemu? Never! He would not allow his son to be burdened with his sin!

He asked advice from the only being that he both feared and respected. He asked Atemu's new soul-bound companion how to stop the oncoming disastrous future, as all mortals tried to avoid when they knew about it.

"You cannot," The Lady Nile answered, with the faintest smirk. "It happens. The outcome of the world will one day rest on your son's shoulders." Her eyelids lowered cautiously. "I am here to see destiny play out. I am ensnared by it-yet at the same time, I dictate it for your son. And how I wish I didn't, otherwise your son would not have to be tainted with my blood. A part of him will always have the darkness of Shadows in him."

The horror on the Pharaoh's face amused her somewhat.

"You act as if the future is set in stone. I never said that-only that destiny traps us. None knows where it leads. Until the time when you must leave this plane and your son, teach him strength. Then he will not break when he faces the darkness. During your son's eleventh summer, come to the magician's sacred temple and pray. Pray that your sin will not shift to your son. It is the best divine intervention you will receive, for the crime of massacre. Its unintentional nature will grant you a hearing from the gods."

She stepped back into the river, and as the last dark rays of the sunset touched her glinting eyes, she sank and was swallowed by her namesake.

Pharaoh Aknumkanon was left holding his cursed, newly bound son. Atemu stared up at the sky, the same rays which had touched the Lady Nile's eyes also reflected clearly in his own amethyst eyes, oblivious to what he had just witnessed. Pure amethyst, tinted crimson.

Innocence, stained with blood.

* * *

_On the corner of the lambskin scroll  
The age-old clarity  
No one can escape  
The troubling matters on the balancing scales  
_

Cursed, Atemu was. He was not aware of it-but he was aware of a strange sense of dark expectancy, hours before his father's last breath. The old Pharaoh had been delirious, ranting and raving, and despite the pain that sight gave to him, Atemu would not abandon his father. He sat with his father hour after hour, endured his father's lack of recognition when he was lucid enough to notice his surroundings, held his father's hand as if he could be a lifeline to his father's sane consciousness. And he hoped, he hoped, in the despairing desolate way of a lost little boy that his father would miraculously come out of his delirium, and go back to being the normal father he knew. Take on the burden that was looming over his head once again, and shield Atemu for a little longer against the heavy duty looming; that was, being king.

At the same time, a silent voice, soft yet inexorable as the main body of the Nile, sadly told him his father would not make it through his illness. Just as that silent voice had whispered to him, as a snake reveals its secrets to its charmer with intricacy, how to save Mahado from snake poison, years ago in his childhood, and how to control his god monster Ka the first time he unleashed them, without control. Flittering like a moth just out of his reach, he could never grasp where it came from, only that it was there. And it came during the most stressed times of his life, when he needed help but could ask no one but himself, who had no answers. So he asked that presence which watched over him instead, and received a rush of undeniable perseverance in response.

At a young age, he decided he wanted to develop that unbreakable determination. His father had helped him with that, letting him help himself in precarious situations, but never abandoning his son. Just supporting him.

Mahado had told Atemu, before he had taken his own watch beside his father, that while the priest himself took watch the king had admitted somewhat tragic things in his life-he had destroyed something, but Mahado had been vague. The fading Pharaoh worried for Atemu in his ramblings, fearful of the new problem which had risen recently in the form of the Thief King and how his son would handle it. He worried he had not done his best. And that was all Mahado would say, ashen and shaky in mind after his watch.

Lady Nile, his father had ranted. During his final hours, Atemu seated beside him, the weakening Pharaoh had ranted endlessly, caught in his delirium, and the tales he told were eerie; tales of blood rituals, blood spattered ground, and a mysterious woman with the essence of the Nile and Shadows, and danced-weaving destiny with blood, Shadows and the eternal river. Against a backdrop of a red washed sunset, she had danced, preaching the destinies of those close to him. Always, Aknumkanon addressed that woman with the utmost respect as he said her name: Lady Nile.

And as Atemu watched his father take his final breaths, the dying Pharaoh had whispered, in a voice hoarse from his delirious raves, of the legend his son bore with his crimson snakes-the ones tattooed on his arms from a young age, which grew warm as striking sunlight when the inexorable voice from his childhood whispered into his ear. A legend connected to the Nile and its child.

"Lady Nile, please lead my son in his most despairing moments, guide him out of the circumstance my sin has caused…"

_You smile faintly  
Barefooted; you twist your waist  
In the direction of fate you chisel out the path  
Of a beautiful symbol_

He never spoke again. His pet eagle was released into a weak, bloody sunset soon after, signifying the Pharaoh's passing. And Atemu fancied, for just a moment, that from the window of his father's room he could see a woman by the Nile, with feline green eyes and clothes of the Nile waters themselves, beckoning to the eagle to follow her into the western sunset-into the Afterlife. With a curious tilt of the head at him, she had turned, stepping across the water. Twirling playfully, as fleet-footed as a lamb, she vanished, as suddenly as a mirage came and went.

The carefree, raw, admittedly alluring image stuck in his mind, and he titled her Lady Nile, the legendary mysterious woman his father had spoken about in his delirium. He almost amused himself by putting her image and name to the silent voice he had heard less and less frequently for his eighteen summers of life, the voice he as an adult attributed to instinct. A part of the goddess rested in his soul then.

However strange, the idea was comforting-he was not alone, even when, months later, already crowned as Pharaoh, he was sealing the Thief King's and his souls in the Sennen Items, to temporarily save the world from darkness. Even as, fearful and so tired he could barely keep conscious, he chanted the spell to seal his own soul, and consequently that of his enemy's, he reached for that voice he heard mainly in his childhood for strength and courage.

Only to realise, he didn't need to rely on that voice to give him courage anymore, he found it in himself, just as powerful as the unbreakable determination he had felt from the mysterious invisible guardian years ago. Instead of courage and determination, he needed comfort to stave off the despair and oncoming loneliness which would come with being imprisoned.

The instinct seemed to know just what he needed too, in its own raw, untamed way. This time it wasn't a fleeting presence at the edge of his mind. It slipped into the darkness that was the magic of the Sennen Puzzle with him, and enveloped his soul in its wild presence, shielding him from the insanity that came with loneliness, and keeping in the bits of his memory that began to come loose. He slept fitfully instead, protected and secure, and weaving in and out of consciousness, he followed the trail of a bloody ribbon, as red as the marking on his arms. He struggled without knowing why, just needing to catch up to the being with the playfully smirking, challenging green eyes who was leading this ribbon, and consequently leading his path.

_Come find me  
You can't find me  
Those lost eyes of yours  
(Those lost eyes  
Can't find me)  
Following me  
Being enticed by me  
The Gods have already been possessed by the devil  
(The Gods have already been possessed by the devil  
Being enticed by me)_

And finally, little by little, as if his body had suddenly been given an energy boost, he caught up to the figure, the collected portion of red ribbon wrapped around his hand and wrist. He found himself face to face with the mysterious voice, or instinct as he had previously called it-had he?-that he named Lady…Lady…Lady what?

She smiled, and a touch of the challenge he had seen before in her eyes was present in the rest of her expression. There was respect too-a great deal of it.

"You've come a long way from your time as a babe," she told him with some amusement. "I'm pleased you could keep up with me for so long. But I stop leading you here."

Something dropped out of the bottom of his stomach. Another thing replaced it-it was heavy and unpleasant; it made his spiritual breathing grow short. Panic that was what it was. He could not help but reach out to the woman-no, immortal, grasping her wrist, just as she cut the ribbon tying them together with a shard of Shadow. She tilted her head curiously.

"What's this? You've grown too fond of my presence, Atemu, despite only meeting face to face for the first time." Her voice held no bite, no mockery, not even any of the wildness he was accustomed to from her voice, once silent and wise. Just amusement.

"And so what if I have?" he challenged. The amusement abruptly vanished from the immortal lady's face.

_Say you love me  
__Do you love me?  
_

"Foolish one, you are," she whispered. "You haven't a clue what I am, and you say that to me? Even more naïve than your father. Can't you sense it?"

A jagged shard of…ice?...appeared in her hand, cutting one of her wrists and the crimson snake tattoo around it. The small wound was swarmed with more Shadows, and when it faded, she was healed. "I'm a dark being you fool, and I condemned you to it. I did it smirking and dancing, as well." Just the flickering shadow of regret in her piercing eyes gave all the answer he needed.

"You didn't want to do it. Or maybe you didn't care before, but now you regret it. Did the gods send you to do this, or did you take matters into your own hands? It doesn't matter anymore. I don't care. But you…if you turn your back on me now, I will not forgive you."

She wouldn't dare abandon him, she had been beside for so long, albeit invisible and intangible, but her potent presence had still been there with him for most of his short life. Her leaving now was unthinkable.

_That emperor's silence of yours  
_

"I suppose your strength depends on the presence of those close to you, and what state they're in," the Lady mused. Her eyes hardened. "I cannot lead you any further. You must go and carve out your own path of destiny now. But," she said, seeing something like dread in Atemu's face. "You cannot go as you are now, still intact. The spell you placed upon your Puzzle has seen to that. Leave your memories with me, and when the time comes, I will return them personally."

Underneath the words, he read the message: we'll see each other again, but now I'll say no more.

"I'll keep you to your word," Atemu agreed reluctantly. Their time together was drawing to a close. He would use his remaining time for one last promise. "We're bound by the blood ritual you danced, at my birth. So we'll definitely cross paths again."

"It won't last forever," the Lady replied.

Still, he trusted her, bringing her hands to his head and allowing her to take his memories. They would be safest in her care, of that he had no doubt. While Egypt could fall back on him, he and this Lady, whose name he couldn't recall anymore, could fall on each other. He seriously doubted either would mind. And amongst uncertain answers, that certainty was a comfort, and it gave him strength enough to step outside her protective cocoon and into the insanity of built up loneliness.

The Lady had timed things well though. Barely a day after, three thousand years after his sealing, Atemu saved a man from dying in his tomb, and that man took the remains of his soul, sealed in the Sennen Puzzle, back to his home country.

Eight years later, the man's grandson, Yuugi Motou solved the Puzzle. He met a memory-less spirit still with a large shred of sanity left, two crimson snake markings on his forearms, and the near non-existent echo of promises haunting his labyrinth soul room.

_(That emperor's silence  
Do you love me?)  
_

* * *

It was like his mind was being pulled, dragged towards something he could not see, physically or mentally. With his physical eyes, Atemu watched the tense faces of his friends (from the modern era), as they concentrated on carving his name into the silver cartouche around his neck by determination alone. Their hard efforts warmed him, as well as ignited his sense of hope-would he finally, after all these years of searching, receive back his full memories? Would he finally know his name?

Something in the distance caught his eye. He blinked, looking past his friends and far behind them.

_Look at me  
_

Arms crossed, the translucent figure of a woman stood, watching him with curious, cat-like green eyes. There was a feel of danger and feral quality about her, the type of quality that would keep people constantly on their toes, and keep their wits about constantly. In any other circumstance, when he wasn't on the verge of discovering something that would change his spiritual existence, he would have reacted warily to a person who held such a wild, flaring, almost _dangerous_ spirit.

As he gazed at her though, he only felt calmness and detached curiosity. Some part of him, the rational part, told him he should be more careful of this being, which was in this memory game, a spirit. The more tired, hope filled part of his mind smothered that rational voice, and he let this new entity do what she wanted.

The lady, no Lady, with a capital (a name, a title from his disjointed, very vague memories?) flicked one of her wrists at him. The flash of a tattoo caught his eye-crimson snakes wrapping around her wrists, the same symbols tattooed around his own forearms. Were they connected?

A thin ribbon with mixed colours of red, black and blue wound around the tattooed wrist the Lady had flicked. The ribbon extended, heading towards him, and wrapped itself around one of his forearms, where his own tattoo was located. None of his friends reacted-it seemed they couldn't see it.

He should have been panicking at that moment. Instead he watched as a large golden bead formed at her end of the ribbon, and slid down towards his end. It inched closer and closer to his forearm, until it made contact with his skin, and vanished.

Warmth spread through him from his arm, comforting, somehow familiar warmth. Vague images flashed in front of his eyes briefly, a mish-mash of vibrant colours spanning from blood red to dark, cold violet; Nile blue to black; and desert golden to caramel brown. A dab of shocking green here, a sliver of the same mixed colours the ribbon connecting them presently was made of.

His vision cleared, and thoughts spinning, he looked down at his chest to see his cartouche glowing golden, the same golden colour the bead sliding down the ribbon tied to him had been. His modern friends opened their eyes to see the engravings of his name trace down the tiny silver slab.

They whooped for joy, and he smiled in relief too, but he could not help but divert his eyes to where the woman was. A satisfied smirk from her, and then she vanished, along with the ribbon connecting them.

He could spare no more thoughts for her however, just as he presently had no more time to organise his newly regained memories properly. He had his friends, his people, and his country-the _world_ to save. So he did.

Extra theatrics weren't needed. It was him, accomplishing one task, one goal, at a time. Slowly, steadily, he would wrap up the loose ends in his existence-that hung _from_ his existence.

And after his defeat by Yuugi, after he had been sent into the Afterlife, there weren't many loose ends to deal with-the Afterlife was a place of rest and peace, after all.

The crimson snakes never left his forearms though-the promise between him and the Lady Nile still held.

* * *

_Being entice__d by me  
Your soul belongs to me  
_

Dancers twirled around the floor, their scarves waving in the air, bangles clinking rhythmically with each spin and turn. Noble men joked with each other, their wives laughed softly over each other's words, and children played discreetly under the table, trying not to get caught by parents. Those who were part of court sat, faces looking solemn except for the telltale glint of relaxation and merriment in their eyes-why shouldn't they feel happy? They were in the Afterlife, a place of peace, and that day particularly was special. The celebration of the Nile god Hapi.

Atemu smiled, greeting those who addressed him politely, and hid his restlessness from others. Restlessness over what, he didn't know. All he knew was that his stomach felt jittery-and he wasn't one to let nerves get to him easily-and that the skin hidden under his forearm jewellery, the crimson snake tattoos, tingled. He shifted discreetly in his throne, trying to put aside his disquiet, and let his eyes drift over the scene in search of a distraction.

A smirk, flashing green eyes, and then they disappeared. Atemu jerked forward in his seat, peering around desperately for those eyes again. He couldn't find them amongst the other dancers on the floor. The rest of his court looked at him oddly, but he paid no attention to the concerned glances. It was time to tie up his last loose ends.

A red ribbon arced high in the air, fluttering higher than the rest. A ribbon the shade of blood. Two more ribbons ascended after its fluttering fall, one cool blue like water and one a mix of violet and black. The violet and black one sent his whole court to their feet, alarmed-the dark magic emanations from them shocked them. All touched their Sennen Items, ready for a danger they had not expected.

Atemu, on his feet too, finally found the person he was looking for. If he could call her just a person. Smirking, she twirled with other dancers with her three ribbons, lithe as a snake. Despite her costume blending in with the other dancers, he kept up with her found figure easily, unable to tear his eyes away from the being whose presence had been so subtly marked in his early life, and whose appearance and voice he saw and heard only once. He refused to take his eyes off her now-refused to let her simply vanish again.

His court found where his gaze was directed at, and thinking she was a danger, began to raise their Sennen Items. A wave of his hand stopped them, and they looked at their king, confused and slightly startled by his absorbed expression.

Ordinary people, whether in the court (and sensitive to magic) or not, began to whisper uneasily as the obvious presence of dark, ancient magic filled the room. The dancers on the floor slowed their twirling, looking about them uneasily, and instinctively edged away from the source of their unease. Still, the person who had been Atemu's enigmatic guide for many years before kept dancing, not the least deterred by the ever widening space around her, by the eyes beginning to focus solely on her. Ignoring them, she spun wildly, a fast paced dance that turned her features into a blur.

Her ribbons shot out, and wrapped around his arms. Atemu jerked, and his court nearly had a spasm over it. Worried, they only kept still because of the calmness in his expression.

He was truly calm. He had nothing to fear from the Lady. Her magic didn't frighten him, neither did her enigmatic nature, nor the fact she was possibly divinity and the Shadow's daughter. They were things he understood, or could learn to understand in future, and most definitely accept. His only fear (and one he could barely admit to himself and his pride) was the possibility of her just vanishing again-leaving him without an answer to the question he asked years ago, just before Sugoroku Motou found the Sennen Puzzle. He needed to speak with her, meet her…he wanted a future with her presence _somewhere_ in it.

Just as she was enigmatic though, she was silent and fleeting as well, and only one conversation had passed between them. The one that had created his unsolved fears.

The tattoos on his forearms burned painfully, and Atemu gasped, clutching at the places. Tearing at his jewellery, he cast them off and grasped at his forearms tightly, biting his tongue to control his pained expression. The ribbons wrapped around his arms bit into the tattooed spots tightly, making his arm numb.

Still, the Lady at the floor danced on, pooling Shadow magic around her ankles. A shard of ice appeared in her fingers, and with a final slash, she sliced her own wrists open, directly where her own snake markings were. Blood dripped down her hands as it did years ago, when this ritual was first done. Only one person in the room, Atemu's father, recognised it, and he gasped inaudibly. Was she…reversing her blood ritual now? His son and her could finally be free of each other, unbound?

The ribbons around Atemu's arms withdrew, and the pain did with them. Atemu rubbed at his forearms and looking down, was shocked to find bare arms clean of any tattoos or markings. The crimson snakes were gone.

Lady Nile slowed her dancing to a stop, panting slightly. Though the breaking dance of a blood ritual was a lot shorter than the making, it was a lot more spirited. Plus, she felt a little bit sad-something she shouldn't have been able to feel, as a daughter of ever changing life and the darkness of Shadows. She should have just felt glad to come back to her mother essence-the Nile River.

But just as she had left traces of darkness in Atemu's soul-though his Hikari Yuugi had managed to help him tame it-he had left traces of his own human compassion in her. The fact the traces of his soul still remained with her should have made her uneasy as a divine being.

She found though, she was actually glad to have a piece of the person she had taken care of for so long with her.

"You…reversed the blood ritual?" Aknumkanon asked quietly. She looked at him with an unreadable expression.

"Yes," she said. "The purpose for it has been fulfilled, and most loose ends have been tied up." She looked at Atemu. "It is time for us to part paths, I believe. You must be relieved, not having to share your privacy now." She smirked, but her eyes lacked any mocking flash.

"That is your answer?" Atemu said through clenched teeth. He bit his tongue to stop the bitterness from pouring out into words. After all, he had unconsciously waited three millennia to hear her answer to his fears-and some part of him had always…hoped for a good answer.

"That is your answer to my question, from a long time ago? You will simply just go, without regret?"

His eyes reflected things she had not prepared herself for-bitterness; behind bitterness, anger; behind anger, pain and…loneliness?

The Lady wondered if her own eyes reflected those last two emotions too-because she was unwilling to end their dance of fate, even though the blood ritual was broken.

"You're still far too attached, Pharaoh Atemu, just as you were years ago," she murmured. "You are not known for patience, just as I am not known for sympathy or pity. So now that our forced bond is gone, we are again bound, this time by something stronger than a blood ritual." She smirked up at him with half-lidded eyes at his impatient, tense expression. The wildness to her nature came back, stronger than ever, and she wondered how far she could test the boundaries of their unstable attachment.

"Come meet me, where the crimson snake sealed both our souls," she commanded almost imperiously. "Maybe there, you'll find your closure."

Watching Atemu's angered expression, Lady Nile wondered if her former charge would come running despite her haughtiness, even as she disappeared from the palace.

Again, she was leading with the ribbon, dancing a different dance for them-would he yield and follow, or dig his heels in and resist?

* * *

None could resist the Lady Nile's charisma. How else could she have persuaded Aknumkanon to let her near his son, as a babe? Only the sharp edged allure she had would let him, and only warily, for her charisma was always linked to danger and untamed _power_.

Which was how Atemu, despite being incensed at being dragged along by her string, ended up riding for the place by the Nile his father had grimly described-the place where the Lady had created the blood ritual that would bind them for many years.

She stood there, against the backdrop of a bloody sunset similar to the one that occurred during the creation of their blood ritual bond, eyes staring pensively-almost longingly-at the Nile River. Her clothes of water shimmered around her, stained red from the sunset light. At the sound of his approaching footstep, she turned towards him.

There was no smirk, no playful comment or slightly sneering glint in her eyes-no, she was sombre, expression grave and serious. The only thing that remained the same was the sense of raw, untameable power from her that made others a little edgy. A part of her he was well used to, and shrugged off. He could match her-they were equals now in every way, none led by the other in a dance of fate.

"So you did come after all," she said, tilting her head to one side. "Despite your anger and my haughtiness."

"I want to tie up the last loose ends in my life."

She shook her head, rather amused. "You realise, that no matter what answer I give, I will always be a loose end in your life? Either out of bitterness, or attempting to understand things beyond _your_ norm."

He trod carefully with his words-"This game of cat and mouse must end sometime." He tried not to think who the cat and the mouse were specifically. And the owner who overpowered both-fate.

"It has ended already," she said flatly. "I am no longer your guide or leader, and you are no longer following the blood ribbon I trail out for you. Here we are on equal ground. If I remain in your existence, you will have to accept things you might not like. I do not follow rules like your people, nor do I follow customs like your royal house. I am not one to be controlled."

Even ground. He knew it long ago. "I know."

"I am originally a dark entity, with essence of the Mother Nile, and the Shadows. If you learn about a divine, you must understand some of the things you will find out about my past will…not be pleasant. You should know the meaning of duty perfectly well."

Again, he could accept that-he had known he could, long ago, when he first asked her whether she was going to just leave. It was too late for his logic to step in when he came to that conclusion of acceptance. "I know."

"I don't even have a real name."

"_I know_. I can accept that. Can you lower your pride to those things though, divine Lady?"

The Lady turned to glance at the Nile waters again, a little sad. She had waited for this prize at the end, but it seemed she would have to give it up before she could claim it. That was okay though-it was a price she could deal with paying. If Atemu could accept some unfavourable circumstances for this, she could too. They were equals in every way.

Her water clothes melted off her into the Nile, leaving behind a solid layer beneath it-robes of dark scarlet, dark violet sashing and blue scarves. Atemu watched, startled.

She nodded her head at him with a wry smile. "It's taken a long time to get to this point," she said. "Apologies will be needed later, but maybe introductions are in order first. I have no name, but I've been called Lady Nile several times. I suppose Nile fits." She shrugged and smirked.

Atemu stared cautiously, though something in him began bouncing joyfully on the balls of its feet. "And you know my name already-Atemu. But I'm not the confused person you last parted with, nor the child you guided. You'll have to find out the changes for yourself though, first-hand and face-to-face."

She smiled, and tried to swallow her pride and slight sadness over leaving her source. "I'd like that. You lead-I am a stranger in this plane of existence. Now you be my guide here."

He saw her humble struggle, desperate to understand a non-divine's way of thinking and life. He smiled.

They rode back to the palace. There were no markings. No blood rituals performed that day. Just loose ends tied up, and new knots formed-the meeting between a shocked court and the uncontrolled divine amongst humans. Then afterwards, many discussions and conversations. Atemu led, and Nile followed for many days. And like Atemu had during his time with Yuugi, she found her feet and followed a path of her own carving-her own, and another with her.

At equal stride and pace, they wrapped an invisible, unbreakable ribbon around their wrists and tied them together. A tie created out of want, not necessity, and far less grave, far more innocent than any blood ritual. Both were aware of what they were getting into.

And between them, there were no regrets.

_(Your soul belongs to me  
Being enticed by me)_

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